It was the home of the first hospital in Roanoke Rapids.
The Pulleys on the front porch.
Now Mike and Teresa Pulley's house at 422 Hamilton Street is recognized as a popular Christmas decoration destination, not for the number of adornments, but for the lights that can be seen through a tree line off Roanoke Avenue.
“When we bought it in 1988, it looked like the Amityville Horror house,” Pulley said today.
The Pulleys would live in one room while they worked on another to make it a home. By 1992 they settled in for good and the first of many decorations to come began around that time.
Medallion honoring the house.
The house was built in 1910. “This was the very first hospital in Roanoke Rapids,” Pulley said, showing a pewter medallion — one of three being sold commemorating the 100th anniversary of the hospital — with an engraving of the house on it.
It served as a hospital from 1912 to around 1916 or 1918 before moving to where the current fire station on Roanoke Avenue is located. It was also used as an apartment building. “It was just sitting empty and we were looking to come back home,” said Pulley, a retired Marine and retired postal employee. “The first Christmas decorations weren't as elaborate. Then I started adding more and more. When I got the Santa Claus for the top of the house, that's when I started decorating to the top of the house.”
The manger scene.
Pulley boasts it is the highest Santa Claus in Roanoke Rapids, towering at the chimney of the three-story house some 30 feet in the air.
Pulley decided to do the decorations for a simple reason. “I'm a people person and the jobs I've had are about customer service. I like seeing the people's reactions.”
There are probably some 30 to 50 light strands that make up the bulk of the decorations and probably around 15 outside decorations.
“The main thing was the wife said we didn't need it cluttered. It needed to shine,” he said.
Rudolph.
Through the years he has added and subtracted displays and one of the displays he is most proud of is a manger scene which has a spotlight on it. The newest addition for this year is a Rudolph. “There's something different every year.”
The lights come on Thanksgiving night and go off the evening of New Year's Day. “It takes me a good week to 10 days to get it just right.”
Some may not realize it, but Pulley has had a part in the Christmas village display on Jackson Street because that is where is mother lives. The dolls are not part of the scene this year because some of the houses need working on, he said.
Lighted deer.
Planning usually begins after his Halloween displays go down and he starts a week or so before Thanksgiving laying out the lights.
Because he has fallen from the third story putting Santa up, he now enlists his brother's help.
The fall is Teresa's main concern now. “I tell him not to do it. I like my Nativity scene but I don't want him rolling off the roof.”
Despite the fall, in which he was able to walk it off, there is still joy at doing this, and when it's time to take the decorations down there is no sadness. “It's a happy feeling because Christmas is about preparing for a new year,” Pulley said. “When the new year comes along you can celebrate Christmas the whole year.”